Workers rescued from elevator at Tower of the Americas

By John Tedesco :
December 28, 2012
: Updated: December 29, 2012 9:00am

Tower of the Americas is a 750-foot observation tower and restaurant in the heart of downtown San Antonio.

All three elevators at the Tower of the Americas, where several employees were trapped early Friday in one of the cars about 400 feet in the air, were behind schedule on state-mandated annual inspections, records show.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation sent notices in May to Landry's Inc., the company that operates the city-owned landmark, warning that inspections due in April were late. The licensing department oversees elevator safety.

Landry's later told the agency it completed the inspections in September and October. But the company hasn't yet filed the results of the inspections for at least one of the elevators, according to a Dec. 27 notice the agency sent to Landry's.

A spokesperson for Landry's emphasized all the elevators had been inspected and are up to code.

No one was injured early Friday when one of the eight elevator cables attached to the car either snapped or was shredded, said Capt. Steve Boldway of the San Antonio Fire Department, who oversaw the rescue.

Each cable is strong enough to hold the elevator car by itself, Boldway said, so the employees inside were in no immediate danger. The elevator froze when the brakes automatically engaged as a safety precaution.

“We did what we call a car-top rescue,” Boldway said.

The tower's three outdoor elevator shafts have portholes that people can climb through. Firefighters went through a porthole above the stuck elevator, opened a hatch on top of the car, put safety harnesses on workers trapped in the elevator, and pulled them out.

Many elevator owners do their own maintenance and repairs along with the state-mandated annual inspections, and Boldway said Landry's is no exception.

“They redid the whole system, so we haven't had a lot of issues recently,” Boldway said. “This is the first (rescue) in about two years that I can remember.”

In the past, City Manager Sheryl Sculley and other city officials have raised concerns with Landry's for not calling firefighters immediately when a tower elevator suffers problems.

In December 2006, when an elevator froze with 18 adults and children inside, tower employees tried to fix the problem for about an hour and a half until they finally called 911.

City officials held a conference call with Landry's representatives and emphasized there shouldn't be any delays in calling the Fire Department, according to a Dec. 13, 2006, memo written by then-Assistant City Manager Penny Postoak Ferguson that summarized those conversations.

“It is imperative that the Fire Department be called immediately so that they can respond and be present on site, as safety is our first priority,” Ferguson wrote.

On Friday, a Landry's spokesperson said the employee operating the elevator pushed an emergency button that calls 911 as soon as the elevator got stuck. She said the tower's fire alarm system also is activated when an elevator's brakes are engaged.